Triplet: Probability Game

The Triplet Game gives kids a chance to match the value on cards to the value they roll on a die. When two players play against each other, it's a fast-paced race to see which player will roll the dice to match the cards the most quickly. Along the way there's a lot of exploration you can do about probability. How often do the tosses of the dice match the cards that are being flipped over? How are things affected when you have a die that has more numbers, such as a 12-sided die compared to a 6-sided die?

Once students have played several rounds as a race, you may want to try it a different way and establish some baseline data. Turn over a card in the class and give students different dies to use. Have them record how often they were able to match the number of the card you turned over with their toss. Have students compare their data across groups. You would expect to see students whose dies have less numbers on them match the numbers on the cards with greater frequency. Is that what's happening in reality? This is a great beginning to discuss the differences between theoretical and experimental probability.